Kayla Hallows

Step over the threshold of Droopy Fairy and Bird's home.

Droopy Fairy's Return Home utilises storytelling conventions of repetition, ambiguity of expression, stacking, and visual syntax where images function like a language. A whole world is created through multiple renderings of the characters Droopy Fairy and Bird who is her companion. They actively participate in their own making; they lead, I follow, and a story unfolds, forming a portal by allowing viewers to step over Droopy Fairy’s threshold, and into her world.

Droopy Fairy's Return Home explores that moment of walking over a threshold, feeling safe and letting your guard down for the day. Using different materials and processes, I build a kind of library of experiences, recording how my body moves through, and adapts to space. Like Droopy Fairy and Bird finding their way home, this library becomes a metaphor for the ways I continually shape my surroundings and myself to create a sense of ease, safety, and belonging.

Droopy Fairy and Bird’s story draws from magical realism, utilising storytelling conventions such as ‘hero’s journey’. Their story follows the stages of ‘Journey’, ‘Arrival’, and finally, ‘Dwelling’ within their home. I want viewers to reenact the story, activating the artworks and writing their own ending through their interactions with the space.